This invention relates to loading and carrying devices for securing loads to the tops of vehicles, and more particularly to devices that support loads to be inverted, loaded and carried on vehicles.
The smallest, lightest boats used for recreation can be quite readily inverted and loaded manually on top a vehicle such as a pickup, camper, automobile, or station wagon. Inverted boats are generally attached to carrier frames that have been secured to the tops of the carrying vehicles. To aid in loading larger boats, various arrangements of ramps have been connected to the rear portions of the top-mounted frames or carriers. The loading devices may require that wheels be attached to the boats such that the wheels follow the rails of the ramps while the boats are pulled up the ramps by cables. Since the general practice is to invert boats on carriers, the boats may be inverted before being pulled up the ramps. Except for the smallest boats, more than one person is required to invert each of the boats, and even two persons may have difficulty in loading a quite heavy fishing boat. Furthermore, a person who is partly disabled may need a mechanical loading device that is still easier to operate to load a boat of any size.